1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

I am a behavioral healthcare provider in private practice who bills MaineCare patients through an affiliation with Sweetser. I have decreased the MaineCare portion of my caseload by about 50% since 2022. As MaineCare patients discharge, I am working towards replacing them with Commercial Insurance patients. The primary reason motivating this transition away from serving MaineCare patients is the discharge process required by Maine's Administrative Services Organization, Acentra Health. Acentra's "SPMI" discharge process is unnecessarily administratively burdensome. As a result, MaineCare members will continue to find it harder and harder to obtain behavioral healthcare, as providers decide that the benefits of serving this population are outweighed by the burden.